


Secret Tunnel

by W01FS0NG



Category: Bleach, Secret Tunnel (Folk Song)
Genre: F/M, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Platonic Relationships, Rebuilding Friendships, Yumichika x OFC x Ikkaku, mission, secret tunnel atla folk song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:48:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25773106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/W01FS0NG/pseuds/W01FS0NG
Summary: While on the mission to recover missing Shinigami, five Soul Reapers head out in search of them... and they get trapped in a labyrinth.
Relationships: Ayasegawa Yumichika/Original Female Character(s), Madarame Ikkaku/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	Secret Tunnel

Mai Fujiwara briskly walked through the Squad Ten barracks. She was training with her shadow type Zanpakuto when the butterfly called her in and was already late. She had been up since early in the morning, training her nightmares away. When she got there, she already found Rangiku, Renji, Ikkaku, and Yumichika listening to Captain Hitsugaya. “Their last known location was-” he stopped himself. “Ah, Mai, you’ve finally come to join us.”

Third Seat Fujiwara tried not to stare at the members of the Eleventh Division. “My apologies, Captain. It will not happen again.” They continued with the meeting. Most of which Renji had to tell her as they walked towards the gates. 

In short, the details of the mission were that a large group of Soul Reapers went missing outside the walls. Members of the group came from both Squad Ten and Squad Eleven. They were hunting a large pack of hollows that had previously attacked a town. None of them have come back. Their mission was to find the missing Shinigami, take down the hollows, and bring them home.

Their last known location was way far out. It took them almost five days to get close to a town. In those days, almost no words were spoken between Ikkaku, Yumichika, and Mai. The two men mostly just spoke with each other, and the Lieutenants. Meanwhile, Mai mostly just spoke with the lieutenants. The two men of Squad Eleven only addressed the third seat of Squad Ten when necessary. This was giving Renji and Rangiku cause for concern, but they haven’t chosen to address it yet. They didn’t want the group to become more dysfunctional than it already was. 

On the fifth day, the group was hanging out by the river, having been camped there last night. That’s when they heard the music. A flute, a guitar, and a man’s voice. “Don’t fall in love with a traveling girl. She’ll leave you broken, broken hearted~” he sang. The music stopped when they noticed the group of Shinigami.

“Heh-hey~ River Shinigami,” he said. The Soul Reapers gave him and each other confused looks.

“We’re  _ not _ river Shinigami,” Yumichika corrected him as he moved some hair out of his face.

“You're not? Well then, what kind of Shinigami are you?”

“Just, Shinigami?” Mai answered him with a shrug.

He sighed. “Aren’t we all.”

“Excuse me,” said Rangiku as she walked up to the pair. “We’re looking for another group of Shinigami that passed through here a few days ago. Do you-“

“Oh yeah,” the man with the guitar interrupted her. He absent-mindedly strummed his guitar. “Hey, Lily, remember those six? Weren’t they chasing after a large group of hollows?” He asked the woman with the flute.

“Yeah,” Lily looked up in thought with a finger on her chin before glancing at the Soul Reapers. “They were traveling East, I believe,” she told them. “There’s a clearing that’s hard to get to, but there’s also a large number of hollows who gather there. But that’s far, far away from here. They probably went there. Much too dangerous for any soul to travel through, though. ”

“We’ll take our chances,” Renji decided.

“There  _ is  _ another way,” the man with the guitar stated. “A pass that goes right through the mountains.” His eyes widened as if it was one of the most dangerous things in the world.

“Is this real? Or a legend?” Renji questioned them.

“Oh, it’s a real legend,” the man stated. To which, the group gave each other looks while Abarai smacked his forehead. 

The man then started strumming on the guitar and sang, “Two lovers, forbidden from one another. A war divides their people. And the mountain decides them apart. Built a path to be together.” He paused and said, “Yeah, I forget the next couple of lines but then it goes— secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountains. Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel!!! Yeah!”

“Cool,” Mai deadpanned. She was the only one to respond.

Soon enough, the five of them were on the road. The wandering duo left to go on their own path. The man strummed his guitar again and sang, “Even if you’re lost you can’t, lose the love because it’s in your heart. Hmmmmmmm.”

The five Shinigami walked mostly in silence with nothing really to talk about. Mai was nervous. She hasn’t seen Yumichika or Ikkaku since before the three of them became Soul Reapers. Long story short, an incident occurred that separated her from the two of them. She ended up becoming a Shinigami on her own. This woman knew that the two of them had become Soul Reapers as well, but never really had the courage to. Always kept herself busy with missions. Maybe that’s childish. 

The group traveled on to the base of a mountain. Soon, they found a pathway on its side. They looked at each other and shrugged before deciding to follow it. It wasn’t long until hollows attacked them.

They were huge, larger than normal. Three of them.“So, I’m guessing these were some of the hollows responsible,” Mai said out loud as her katana clashed with a hollow’s claws.

“I’d say so,” Renji said as he pushed one back with his sword. It skidded in the air. The other one had locked claws with Ikkaku’s sword.

The three monsters shrieked. 

The battle had somehow moved farther up the path. Clashes and clangs of swords and claws, coupled with shrieks and battle cries. It was then that Mai sought to end things quickly. “Spread your wings, Kuroi Ryu!” The katana’s handle changed to have black cord wrap, with the white handle showing through in a straight diamond pattern. The pommel was golden. The guard had a bit of a black dahlia shape. The blade turned black. With one slash of her sword through the air, a wave of dark energy killed one of the three. Enraged, a hollow cut into the rock above them. The enormous objects were about to fall on them.

It was then that Renji noticed the cave. “Come on!” he shouted. “In here!”

Complete darkness surrounded them as the rocks blocked the entrance. “Great, now we’re trapped in here,” Ikkaku commented. Yumichika muttered something about his hair.

“It’s so dark in here, I can’t see a thing,” Rangiku whined.

Mai sighed and sheathed her zanpakuto. When she looked up, she saw blue glowing crystals. “Not necessarily,” she told her Lieutenant. “Look up.” They didn’t need any torches. These crystals were good enough.

“Oh~” Matsumoto, as well as the others, glanced at the ceiling.

“I wonder if this is the secret tunnel that weirdo was talking about,” Renji stated as he stood up and dusted himself off. 

“That’d be cool, I guess,” Mai said. She chose to walk ahead. The others soon followed her. 

They then split off into two groups, though still walking near each other. Rangiku and Mai walked in the front, while the three men walked behind them. 

“How are you feeling?” her Lieutenant asked her gently.

“I’m fine,” Mai told her. The third seat of Squad Ten crossed her arms and averted her gaze from the redhead.

Rangiku hummed in frustration, trying to talk to her subordinate about a topic she knows nothing about. “It’s just that, well, you mentioned to me that you used to know them, and I get the feeling that you don’t want to talk to them. You can tell me anything, you know. Woman’s honor.”

Mai gave her a small smile and said, “Thank you.”

Mai couldn’t help but overhear, Yumichika’s and Ikkaku’s hushed conversation with Renji. “I heard right that the three of you used to know each other, right?”

“Well, I'm not sure who could have told you, but yes…” Yumichika told him. “I worry about her, sometimes.” 

“We both do,” Ikkaku admitted.

“Did… you three drift apart?” Abarai asked them.

There was silence before Yumichika took the chance to speak. “There was an incident concerning-“

Suddenly, a loud rumble sounded above them. Then the rocks started falling. They blocked the light from the crystals partially. “Mai, watch out!” Ikkaku and Yumichika yelled. She stood right underneath the falling rubble. They both tackled her to safety. Yet in doing so, separated the three of them from Rangiku and Renji.

“Get off,” Mai told them, trying to get out of their grip. They let go and stood up, dusting themselves off.

“Are you three okay?” Rangiku yelled through the barrier.

“Yeah!” Mai called out.

“Speak for yourself,” Yumichika muttered, carefully inspecting his hair.

“I’m going to use Zabimaru to-” What the hell was Abarai thinking?!

“And bring down  _ another _ rock slide?!” Madarame questioned. “Are you  _ trying _ to get us killed?”

Mai sighed. “Keep following the path!” She told the Lieutenants. “We’ll keep following this one! Hopefully, we’ll see you on the other side!”

There was silence for a few seconds. “O-okay,” Rangiku allowed. “Good luck.” 

Mai felt the Lieutenant’s reiatsu disappear farther into the cave. She peered at the roof of the cave and sighed, thinking out loud, “I wonder who’d have the amount of spiritual pressure that could pull this off.”

“It  _ is _ quite impressive,” Ayegesawa remarked, glancing around the cavern, “But it  _ could  _ have looked more beautiful.” He sighed, trying not to get comfortable with this small moment.

“Let’s get going, you two,” Ikkaku told them. He sounded annoyed and appeared to be pretty anxious.

“What?” She smiled slightly. “Scared of a little cave?” Mai quipped.

The bald third seat almost gritted his teeth. “I just want this to be over and done with.”

“Me too,” she deadpanned. She laced her fingers together and cracked her knuckles as she stretched her arms above her head. Her hands then rested themselves under her raven-colored shoulder-length hair. 

A long time passed in silence and aimless walking before Maderame spoke again. “So, are we just not gonna talk about it?”

Knowing what he meant, her eyes squinted in remembrance. She hated that day. “Is there a reason to?” She questioned him.

“I’d say so,” the bald man pressed on.

She pursed her lips as her eyes chose to continue staring at the crystals rather than the darkness. “A powerful hollow attacked us, separated us, and somewhere along the line, the three of us became Shinigami at different times. Now we’re here. What is there to talk about?”

“You’re leaving out a giant detail there, but how about the fact that ever since you found out about us being Soul Reapers, you’ve avoided us,” The fifth seat spoke up. Knowing this, her hands dropped to her side, disappointed that he brought up the subject again.

The woman gave him a hard stare. “You’ve been doing the same,” she told them in a harsh tone.

“We just… didn’t know how to approach you,” Ikkaku admitted.

“That makes three of us.”

“Well then,” said the purple-haired man. He stepped in front of Mai and extended his hand. She peered at him with a soft and sweet sadness. “Let me be the first to say hello.”

“Hi,” she said after a few seconds, shaking his hand.

His arm retreated to his side as his lips adopted a kind smile. “It’s been a while, Mai. How’ve you been? You look as beautiful as ever.”

She felt her lips tug upwards.“Why thank you very much. I’m okay. And you both?”

The two men shared a look and smiled. Ayesegawa turned back to her and said, “We’ve been just fine, thanks.”

—————

_ The three of them walked along a path. It was close to Mai’s village. It had been just shy of a year since Mai had seen her people, and her two friends weren’t going to deny her a chance to see them. _

_ The visit had gone on for at least three days. On the third night, the trio heard people screaming. It was only followed by the shriek of at least ten hollows. Instantly, she grabbed her sword and ran out. _

_ “Mai! Wait!” Ikkaku called after her, but she didn’t listen. She just charged ahead, wanting to protect her village from the hollows. “Damn it!” He too grabbed his sword and went after her. Yumichika sighed before doing the same. _

_ But they never did find her. They were only focused on themselves and finding their companion. Sure, they fought off the hollows, but not from the villagers. They were too focused on Mai.  _

_ Morning came and there was still no sign of her. “Yumichika,” said Ikkaku. His voice was low and full of sorrow. “I hate to say it, but what if she-“ _

_ “Don’t you dare!” His friend snapped at him. Yumichika refuses to believe in the possibility. “She has to be alive! Somewhere! We just have to keep looking!” _

_ “And what if the search is all in vain?! If she’s dead?! If we do all that searching for nothing?! What if the hollows took her away and killed her?” _

_ “We can’t let  _ **_your_ ** _ fear ruin our search! She’s a fighter! She has to be alive somewhere!” _

_ “AND WHAT IF SHE’S NOT?!” _

_ Tears threatened to fall from his eyes as he knelt on the ground. “She has to be.” He was alone for so long that when Ikkaku and then Mai came along, he vowed to himself never to lose them. “Tch.” Now, one of his dear friends was gone. He almost couldn’t take it. _

_ ————— _

_ Mai woke up with a gasp beside a river. The rushing water helped her regain her hearing and her sense of smell. The water sounded like it was flowing hard against the rocks, and the surrounding grass smelled damp and moist. Her eyes only saw a clear sky. _

_ She tried and tried to get up, but her body just ACHED. Her mind then flooded with the events of last night. No, wait, how long was she unconscious?  _

_ She remembered Madarame calling out her name. She remembered the shrieking of the hollows. She remembered trying to cut down the hollows. How they all seemed to swarm her. How they all tried to kill her, to eat her, to injure her. The memory of her old friends and neighbors screaming brought her to her feet. _

_ Using her sword as a cane, she willed her body back to the village. She didn’t care how much it hurt. She didn’t care if it took a month to get back. She had to. She just had to. _

_ But when she got there, everyone was dead. The corpses seemed to have been lying there for two days. There was no sign or either Yumichika or Ikkaku. _

_ Where did they go? Did they just abandon the village? Did they try to search for her? Did they give up? _

_ She tried not to think about it as she buried the dead and healed her wounds. _

—————

“We failed you that night,” Yumichika told her. “And for that I  _ am _ sorry.”

“You tried, didn’t you?” She asked him.

“Yes, but if we just kept at it for another day, we would have found you.”

“Yumi,” she said gently. “That’s all in the past now. Let’s just focus on the present. Okay?”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“Right Madarame?” She looked at him expectantly.

“Right,” he parroted.

It was after that event in which Ikkaku and Yumichika ran into Kenpachi. A few months later, they decided to join the Gotei Thirteen under Zaraki. Almost three years after that, they were happy to discover that Mai survived and was in the Academy. Two years later, she joined the Tenth Division. Now, the three of them walked in a cave, content with their decision to reconnect.

Through all their aimless walking, the three of them had stumbled across a door. “It can’t be that simple, can it?” Mai asked them. “I mean, it could be a doer to the other side, but that almost doesn’t make sense.”

“I say we get it open,” Ikkaku stated, stepping towards the massive price of rock.

“How, exactly, are you going to do that when there isn’t any-“ he stopped himself as he spotted a small circle. He pressed his hand to it. A few seconds later, the door moved back a bit and to the side. 

“Well, this isn’t comforting,” Mai commented as she stepped inside. This was not an exit. This was a tomb. Two caskets lay in the center of a raised circle a few feet below them. She glanced up and noticed that the crystals stopped there.

With caution, the three of them walked down the steps to closer inspect the room. “I guess the legend  _ was _ real,” the bald man stated.

Engravings of writing were marked on the stone beneath the tombs. Mai hummed, trying to read the words. “They met on top of the mountain that divided their two villages. The villages were enemies, so they could not be together. But their love was strong, and they found a way. With their spiritual pressures, they carved out the labyrinth so they could meet secretly. Anyone who tried to follow them would be lost in the maze forever. But one day, the man didn’t come. He died in the war between their villages. Grief-stricken, the woman showed both villages a monstrous display of her powers. She could have destroyed them all, but instead, she declared the war over. Both villages live in peace.”

She paused for a second before commenting, “Huh, interesting.”

“Guys?” Yumichika said. “I’ve found the way out of this room.” The crystals had resumed there. It was off to the side of the room. Faint blue light showed at the top of the tunnel leading out.

They walked for probably thirty minutes before getting out of the cave. A delighted smile and laugh escaped Mai’s lips as her figure reached the sun.

“Took you long enough,” a familiar voice remarked. The trio turned around to find Ranji and Rangiku sitting on a rock.

“How did-“ Mai answered her own question when she saw the giant hole in the mountain. “You used Zabimaru, didn’t you?”

“Yep,” the tattooed redhead confirmed. “Lost the light of those crystals though.”

Battle cries and hollow shrieking made everyone turn to see six soul reapers fighting off hollows. They looked weak, and their sword skills were sloppy. Mai knew most of them, and their seats were in the higher teens. They were usually much stronger than this. They must have been exhausted. There seemed to be at least twenty hollows there.

The group of five looked between each other and nodded. They charged into battle. 

—————

The journey back took a little longer, as to be expected, but they got everyone home safely. Now, the five of them had gone out to the bar to celebrate.

Seeing the Yumichika, Ikkaku, and Mai all laughing and smiling while talking about old memories put a smile on the Lieutenants’ faces.

At some point though, Izuru and Shuhei came up to the group. “You three look like you’re getting along,” Shuhei noticed. A lot of people knew that before this point in time, the three of them didn’t talk to each other. “So, what happened?”

“Secret tunnel,” she told him before sipping some more sake.

“What?” He questioned.

“Secret tunnel.”

“Through the mountains,” Yumichika joined, with a smile.

“Yeah,” Ikkaku finished, taking a giant sip of his drink.

For a reason unfathomable to both Izuru and Shuhei, Rangiku burst out laughing. The two of them left shortly after that.

  
  



End file.
